Had a play tonight with turning the ASR off in my vRS on a late night run to the supermarket and on the way back floored it coming out of a few corners and a roundabout - all I can say is I was astonished by the difference :eek: .

The car was instantly more throttle responsive and allowed me to power up the flyover from the roundabout I tried it on at a rate of knots!

Since I've had the car I've always thought that it was a little lacking when trying to give it the beans out of a bend for fun (on a clear dry road of course )

I did a search when I got home for ASR and know a bit more about it now than before but thought I'd run a poll to see who did what with it.

Fingers on the keypads - All vote now

Matt

i very rarely switchon the asr for the very same reason you mention... but then having said that i've only got a 2.0 fabia and it's not exactly what i would call a muscle car!

It's rare to switch it off, but I find the cr*p road surfaces send the ASR nuts on the TDI when you are giving it a bit.

I actually find ASR very dangerous on the odd occasion when you get snow down here.

It caught me out turning across traffic the other day as i put some power down, the road surface went crap, the asr starts cutting in, but is still going for a while after even though you have plenty of traction.

I actually find ASR very dangerous on the odd occasion when you get snow down here.

Thats the reason there is a switch to turn it off.

I fully understand it's a safety feature and not something to be turned off lightly - although I wish I'd known of it's effects the other day when I found myself at the front of a set of dual carriageway lights (right hand lane), top of a hill, national speed limit (oops, I mean "private road" :P ) with my mate in his Marlin Turbo kit car behind me.

I gave it all the thing had and when he got a gap he pulled over and shot up the left hand side of me like I was in reverse !!! (He went past at about 120mph I believe, I was still gunning in third )

Granted he has about 300BHP in a mid engined rear wheel drived sports car weighing less than a fag packet but I still thought my vRS didn't go as well as expected - will have to try again with it disabled next time I find myself in "pole position" on that set of lights.................

I once drove map on ASR off in the wet.

Not good, I wouldn't advise it.

i've never turned the ASR off ever on my Fabia VRS , to tell you the truth i've never even thought about turning it off , done a track day at Oulton Park and been the Ring with ASR engaged , might try it without at Oulton in November though just to see

For me the car seems to respond a little bit better when you rag it around a corner

when the asr is switched off

Saying that

Its usually switched on when i drive because i forget to switch it off when i start my journey

I turn it off for that "special ocassion"

Thinking of a dangerous mod myself :eek: - disabling a "safety" (yeah right:rolleyes: ) system

wire in a relay - one side to ignition switched live

other to wiring behind switch. Needs refinement but that's the basic idea......

turn on the ignition - off goes the ASR. press the button when you want it on! sort of backasswards....

Wonder if changing the ASR toggle to a proper off/on switch could achieve the same result (I think it's a momentary switch but I wait to stand corrected....)

Cheers:thumbup:

Bas

Basil,

I would guess it's a normally open momentary push to make type switch (although it could be normally closed although I'd say that's unlikely) going on the way it basically toggles the status of the ASR with the engine running.

If you really wanted to reverse this then wiring a "piggy backed" contact via a relay that came on with the ignition would probably achieve this, although as the button would then be permanantly "pressed" this may cause problems in the ECU, something you could then only get around using a timed relay contact that broke after a second or so.

This is purely speculation on my part, based on my own engineering background and experience of PLC programming - that's how we would have such a button operate, ie default ASR on, momentary pulse of the input to disable it until next ignition cycle and I would make sure there was a safety check in there to ensure that the system didn't get disabled by a "welded" contact, hence the need for a short timed pulse.

Please don't anyone take my opinions as gospel here, I must stress that I WOULD NEVER advocate permanantly disabling the ASR (or any other feature) that may just save you and your car in an unforseen event, and only created this thread/poll to get an idea of if anyone agreed with my guess that it does hold back performance a little sometimes and see what other peole did!

Turn it off at your own risk .

Matt

I rarely have it on, except in the wet. It has caught me out when I need to get the gas down, and the "computer says no!" I think it takes a lot of the skill away from driving.

Personally, I think its just a case of being able to feel what the front wheels are doing, and compensating accordingly with the throttle.

I've actually never thought to turn it off. I didn't think it would make much difference so never bothered! May have a play tomorrow and see what it's like...

Thanks for the advice Matt - much appreciated!

I'm trying to get into the habit of hitting the ASR button right after turning the ignition switch.

Almost never any wet out here, and it's better to get used to the throttle response at one particular level. I used to drive a car with a tendency to break traction at the slightest over-throttle, so that ASR-off fits in well with my habits....

Just out of interest (I'm completely responsible for myself here) could you suggest a relay that would self-time to shut off after a second or two?

Cheers

Bas

Can you do that with VAG-COM basil?

Ok Basil, here goes!

I had a quick look on RS Components website (RS Components - The UK's leading industrial supplier to business, Free delivery, Free technical information) and found this which I think would do the job (RS Stock Number is 296-7371, cost

best watch what you right on here!!:(.....insurance companies are trying to have cars fitted with ASR with no way of turning it off!!!....they are pretty big on it here...if you prang your car they will check to make sure it wasnt turned off!!..if it was the insurance is null and void!!!:(.....wheres the fun in life anymore??:(

k:)

best watch what you right on here!!:(.....insurance companies are trying to have cars fitted with ASR with no way of turning it off!!!....they are pretty big on it here...if you prang your car they will check to make sure it wasnt turned off!!..if it was the insurance is null and void!!!:(.....wheres the fun in life anymore??:(

k:)

But ASR just limits wheelspin ??? ESP is the real safety feature....

ASR is just a way of prolonging tyre wear imo...

Turn it off and car feels way more responsive in all lower gears (ie 1-4)

but youve just answered that above.....your spinning the wheels alot more and the car is more responsive!!! and that scares insurance compaines!!:(.....a friend works for an insurance underwriters and this is whaqt she tells me.....anything that stop acr from loosing control wether AST,ESP or whatever the insurance companies are pressing to have them as standard on all cars or face heafty rises in premiums!!:(.....its the jail i know!!!

k

I drove to work with my ESP off on sunday, there is a corner I tend to take too fast and brake too late and I nearly span and crashed, but I managed to keep control (and no I was not speeding)

best watch what you right on here!!:(.....insurance companies are trying to have cars fitted with ASR with no way of turning it off!!!....they are pretty big on it here...if you prang your car they will check to make sure it wasnt turned off!!..if it was the insurance is null and void!!!:(.....wheres the fun in life anymore??:(

k:)

As already mentioned I don't turn it off when driving, I was merely curious to what it does and how other people use it .

And I thought I made it quite clear in my posts to Basil what I felt about doing it - that doesn't mean I'm going to refuse help to someone who asks my advice .

Matt

In Furby vRs ASR=smoking tyres and new tyres. Although costly Very fun

Well I think I've had my first negative experience of ASR in action this afternoon.

I'd just turned right at traffic lights onto a 50 limit dual carriageway, left hand lane and got held up behind some rather slow drivers so I checked the mirrors, indicated, pulled out and booted it past in first.

Changed to second and the car just lost all power immediately and took a good few seconds to recover .

At the end of the stretch was another roundabout so I switched it off and when clear booted it on the exit and shifted up to second - result was complete wheelspin as soon as I let the clutch out .

So I guess the car is capable of producing serious torque in low gears under hard acceleration and the ASR is just trying to stop me stuffing it somewhere, which is all good by me but 'kin annoying when it stops me from using the power :thumbdwn: just when I need it!

Moral is I guess for all normal driving it's on and when I know I need to hoof it then switch it off quick (or be more gentle on the laughing pedal )

Left on all the time I managed to get 10k out of Pirelli P Zero's on the front, I wonder how long they would have lasted if ASR had been switched off? :shock: :grumpy: not long enough! ARRGH! M'Wallet.

I turned the ASR off in my TDi once - there we were in a supermarket car park on a snowy afternoon (me and my 3 yr old son) - we dropped the mrs off to get some bits and took the car to a deserted corner for a "play";).

We were both grinning our heads off, throwing the car around and using the handbrake - a couple of impartial observers saw us and laughed along with us too...would never do it on an open road mind! I guess that it's Ok to do if you are in a relatively safe and controlled environment, where there is room for manoevre, but most of the roads where I live are fairly unforgiving (one of the worst counties in the country for accident casualties).